FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT ROBERT WRENN - PAGE 2

Andrew Geary of Newport News took second place in the state competition of the Elks National Free Throw Contest Sunday in Falls Church. Geary, a Denbigh Baptist student, made one shot fewer than the winner in the boys 10-11 class, Brian Bocock of Harrisonburg. Bocock made 20 of 25 attempts. Geary made 19 of 25, leaving him in a shootoff for second against Steven Papageorge of Arlington-Fairfax. Both Geary and Papageorge went 3-for-5 to force a second shootoff. This time, Geary prevailed, making all five to Papageorge's 3-for-5.

Amateurs Gill Fitz Hugh and Harrison Rutter upstaged the favored professionals with 4-under-par 68s to share the first-round lead in the Signet Open of Virginia golf tournament Thursday. Both FitzHugh, older brother of defending tournament champion Woody FitzHugh, and Rutter recorded five birdies and one bogey over the 6,684-yard Willow Oaks Country Club course. Professional Ronnie Kelley and amateurs John Minor and Sam Stein trailed the leaders by one stroke in the 72-hole event.

PGA professional Robert Wrenn of Richmond leads a field of 165 golfers competing for Virginia's most coveted open golf championship, the Signet Open, which begins today at Willow Oaks Country Club in Richmond. Wrenn, who has won once on the PGA Tour since qualifying in 1984, is playing in his fourth consecutive Signet Open. He won the tournament in 1983 and 1989, but back problems forced him to withdraw last year halfway through his second round. In Wrenn's absence, Bruce Lehnhard, the 48-year-old club pro from Locust Grove and Middle Atlantic PGA Player of the Year in 1990, caught 54-hole leader Mike West of Farmington Country Club on the last three holes and surpassed him with a par putt on the 18th hole to win the title.

Jim Ducibella knows first-hand the power of Harry Potter. "I was doing a book signing in Christiansburg," Ducibella recalls, "and they set up the table right in front of the Harry Potter display. I've never had so many people reach over my shoulder." Ducibella need not worry. Few authors are as hip as J.K. Rowling these days. Besides, while Ducibella's first book can't match the romance and intrigue of sorcerer's stones and goblets of fire, it does offer compelling revelations about the history of golf in Virginia.

Six courses in the Williamsburg area have made Golf Digest's top 10 public courses to play in Virginia. The list is based on a combination of rankings by a panel of Golf Digest design experts and on evaluations by subscribers to the magazine. The honored Williamsburg-area courses and their ranking are: No. 3, the Golden Horseshoe Golf Course; 4. Kingsmill's River Course; 5. the Golden Horseshoe Green Course; 6. Kingsmill's Woods Course; 9. The Colonial Golf Course; 10. Williamsburg National Golf Club.

Sarah Strange whacked the ball off the tee and watched it sail off to the right of the green. Her caddie winced before patting her on the shoulder and repeating, "not bad, not bad." Walking down the fairway to hit her next shot - her team would bogey the par-4 - Strange blamed the errant drive on her caddie. "He's the one who lines me up and walks me through shots," said Strange, who claimed to be playing golf for just the third time in her life. "He lined me up too far to the right.

What the Williamsburg area doesn't need is another high-priced, unaffordable golf course where the average Joe won't be able to play. And that's exactly what it won't get when construction of a new course in Toano begins sometime in August. The course is the first venture in golf-course design for Robert Wrenn, the PGA Tour pro and Richmond-area native. Wrenn, along with course architect Lester George and a developer from Richmond, who wants anonymity, plan to build an inexpensive public course.

Kingsmill touring pro Curtis Strange wasn't happy with his play for the second straight day Friday, which was made worse when he called a one-stroke penalty on himself. Strange actually didn't score that badly. He shot a 2-under-par 69, but it could have been 68 had he not assessed a penalty stroke on himself when his ball moved after he addressed it on the par-5 third hole. At the time, he was putting for birdie from inches away. "I didn't see the ball move. Curtis called the penalty on himself," said Davis Love III, one of his playing partners.

You can usually tell how well the Virginians are doing on the PGA Tour by the roll call at the Kemper Open. If there are a lot of absentees, that's generally a good sign. It usually means that they're playing well and that they, like the game's marquee players, have decided to skip this tournament. This year's Kemper has only one player from the top 10 of the PGA money list, Tom Kite, who is making his first start since the Masters and the back injury that has plagued him since.

Robert Wrenn was a bit more human on Sunday. He could have been marsupial and still won the 64th Signet Open. Wrenn, the Richmond native and only PGA touring professional in the field, outclassed his competitors wire-to-wire this week at Willow Oaks Country Club and finished with a 12-stroke victory over second-place Mike Pratt. Even Wrenn's so-so rounds - he had three bogeys and one double-bogey on the last day - were spectacular. He offset the bad shots Sunday with eight birdies, including three in a row on the 16th, 17th, and 18th holes, to finish with a 3-under 69 and a tournament-record 20-under-par 268. "I think the only bad shots I hit today were the ones I was trying to be aggressive on," Wrenn, 31, said.